This wasn't about Gaza - this was about Iran.

Friday, Nov. 16, Henry Kissinger, foreign policy guru to a succession of US presidents, laid Obama’s dilemma out plainly in the Washington Post: “The most urgent decision facing the president is how to stop Iran from pursuing a military nuclear program. The time available for a diplomatic outcome shrinks in direct proportion as the Iranian enrichment capacity grows and a military nuclear capacity approaches,” Kissinger wrote, adding: “We cannot afford another strategic disaster.”

While also aiming a dig at Obama’s first-term performance, Kissinger was warning him strongly that Iran is on the way to becoming a nuclear power and this must not be allowed to happen.

United Nations nuclear inspectors continue to harbor strong suspicions that Iran is actively working on developing a nuclear weapon, according to the latest report by the international body’s nuclear watchdog agency.

The International Atomic Energy Agency's suspicions focus on the work of Iranian technicians, the report said, “including activities related to the development of a nuclear payload for a missile.”

There are growing fears that the fighting between Israel and Hamas in Gaza could be a test run for an even bigger battle between Israel and Iran.

NBC’s chief foreign correspondent Richard Engel spoke to Hardball host Chris Matthews from Gaza on Monday, where he expressed that concern, and questioned the timing of Israel’s aerial assault.

“Israel really picked the timing. Israel could have gone into a war with Hamas almost at any time [with] its rocket launches as a pretext,” said Engel. “But it chose to do it now. Israel has been testing its Iron Dome defense systems, which would certainly come into play if there was a war with Iran.”

Engel insisted that “Israel’s real enemy is Iran.” The correspondent added Israel has “been telephoning the houses of neighbors of Hamas militants and telling them to get out of their houses. It has their phone numbers. So there is something suspicious about this. Israel has too much intelligence on Hamas…You have to wonder if there really is a different objective.”

Iran is believed to have given Hamas the weapon it needed to hit deep inside Israel: a long-range Fajr-5 rocket. Several rockets were fired at Tel Aviv and Jerusalem over the past week, and Reva Bhalla from the intelligence firm Stratfor says it's Iran that made it possible

"Iran is the one that facilitated these weapons transfers into Gaza," she says. "They would arrive in parts and then they would train operatives in Hamas and Islamic Jihad in how to assemble them."

Long-Range Rockets Vs. Iron Dome

But that's just part of the story. The Israelis have a new anti-missile defense called Iron Dome. And they've been able to intercept and shoot down many incoming rockets. U.S. and Israeli defense analysts say this conflict has been a key test of the Iron Dome system, and they've pronounced it generally a success.

Michael Rubin, a Middle East analyst at the American Enterprise Institute, says the outcome of this rocket contest may have provided insight into a future Israeli-Iranian conflict.

"What many are going to be looking at, not only in Gaza City, but also in Tel Aviv and in Tehran, is the balance between these new, long-range rockets and Israel's ability to shoot them down," he says.

Israeli officials are claiming they've shot down as many as 90 percent of incoming Hamas rockets that they targeted, though Rubin suspects the figure is less, in the range of 50 percent to 75 percent. In any case, some of those long-range rockets did get through.

"Which means, in Tehran, there are probably some Revolutionary Guardsmen looking at this and thinking, 'OK, this is all well and good, we know how well the Iron Dome works now, so if we want to hit Israel five times, all we have to do is launch ten rockets at it,'" Rubin says.

Unanswered Questions

A major part of the Israeli preparation for a war with Iran would be to persuade the Israeli people that they will be protected. Bhalla of Stratfor says it makes sense for the Israeli government to trumpet its success against the Hamas rockets.